Meijer is a large midwestern supermarket chain with over 245 stores located throughout Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. While their primary business is groceries and general merchandise, they do carry a limited selection of collectibles and novelty toys, games and cards in most stores.
When it comes to baseball cards specifically, their availability and selection can vary somewhat depending on the individual store. Larger supercenter locations that are over 100,000 square feet are most likely to have a baseball card selection, whereas smaller standard grocery stores may have a very limited selection or none at all. In general though, the vast majority of Meijer locations do carry some baseball cards alongside other trading cards from various sports and non-sports sets.
The baseball card section at Meijer is typically located within the toys, games and hobby products area, usually up near the front of the store alongside other card games, board games and collectible toys. Space given to baseball cards tends to be relatively small, usually just a few shelving units or pegboard racks. Selection usually focuses on the most recent and popular sealed wax packs, boxes and special releases from the top card manufacturers like Topps, Panini and Upper Deck.
Variety of individual packs and boxes for the current season tends to be good, including both affordable packs under $5 as well as higher end boxes in the $20-50 range. Selection of older vintage wax packs and boxes is extremely limited if available at all. Meijer also does not carry many individual loose packs, boxes or supplies for sorting and organizing hobby card collections. The primary focus is on selling sealed factory sets of the most recently released sports card product lines.
In addition to packs and boxes, Meijer will also typically stock a small assortment of popular and best selling baseball memorabilia cards. This includes cards of star players, rookie cards, autographs and rare parallels from the brands they carry. Selection of specific players, teams and years varies greatly between stores and product tends to turnover quickly. Meijer does not cater their baseball card inventory towards collectors looking to build long term collections or find particular cards.
Availability of supplies for collectors and hobbyists is also limited at Meijer. They may have a shelf section devoted to card collecting accessories, but selection is sparse. Expect to find basic supplies like penny sleeves, toploaders and basic binders or pages. Storage boxes, high end binders, magnetic stands, plastic sheets and other organized storage solutions are usually not in stock. Trading, organizing and showcase supplies are not priorities for Meijer’s baseball card department.
In terms of pricing, Meijer aims to be competitively priced compared to other major retailers on sealed baseball card product. Their selection is usually not as deep into rarer or higher end items. Individual packs and boxes come in at standard manufacturer MSRP pricing. Large multi-pack bundles or team/player lot specials are sometimes run as promotions. Additional deep discounts off MSRP pricing on large sealed products are rare compared to dedicated card shops or online retailers.
Customer service and shopping experience for collectors at Meijer could also be improved. Staff may have minimal knowledge about current baseball card releases or values. The small organized sections make browsing selections difficult compared to larger LCS stores. Meijer shoppers looking primarily for groceries may also accidentally misplace or damage loose cards in public areas not well monitored.
While Meijer does stock a limited selection of mainstream baseball cards and memorabilia aimed at casual fans, their departments are small without specialty items. Availability varies greatly between individual supercenter and grocery locations across regions. Serious collectors seeking vintage, hard to find sealed items, supplies or lowest pricing would be better served shopping dedicated local card shops or online retailers specializing in the hobby. But Meijer can still fulfill basic card buying needs for many customers, including kids, in areas not well served by specialty shops.
